The present invention relates to an underground rock cutting process wherein the full cutting face of a shaft or vertical gallery is excavated upwardly with the side wall of the shaft being supported by shielding. The present invention also relates to the apparatus for carrying out such process.
It is frequently required in underground operations to have shafts developed upwardly. For instance, in black ore deposits, the black ore is frequently found positioned among a clay bed on certain hard and strong underground rock. Therefore, the black ore can not be reached from above but must be dug and conveyed through a rise hole or upwardly directed shaft bottomed on the above-mentioned hard rock.
Various types of processes have been proposed and introduced to establish shaft or rise hole excavation techniques, including the processes referred to below.